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The first Wiki Club in the Republic of Macedonia took a part in celebrating Wikipedia 16. The Club organized an event on 17 January 2017. The event was fully covered by the media. There were announcements before the event, and after the event itself in the local news. Wikipedians gave interview to the reporters, and were excited to hear that their efforts in Wiki Club are valued.

An introduction to the work of Wiki Club was given by two employees in the Museum, who are in charge of following and helping Wiki Club activities. The director of the MuseumBranislav Svetozarevik, pointed out the high value of teaching students to edit Wikipedia. A speech about Wikipedia gave the president of GLAM Macedonia User Group, Snezhana Shtrkovska. At the end, the coordinator of educational program of GLAM Macedonia, Matilda Bajkova, thanked the schools, the teachers and the students for taking a part in the first Wiki Club in Macedonia.

The jury members decided to award seven students in several categories: best article, most number of created articles, most contributions (not only new created articles, but also edited existing articles), etc. The awards were symbolic: notes with Wiki logo, mugs with Wiki Club logo, T-shirt with wiki logo and certificates.

Until 4 January 2017, at noon, we had 50 new editors, 71 new articles and 141 edited articles. We gave the first awards to the best students at the event organized to celebrate Wikipedia 16. Second time awards were given to the best editors on 20 February 2017.

Wiki Club in Staro Nagoričane

The opening day was at 1 March 2017, in the local school in Staro Nagoričane. The Principal of the school was talking about the connection between Wikipedia and the education. Introducing speech about Wikipedia and other Wikimedia projects gave User:Gordi. She is coordinator of this Wiki Club, and she works with the students in this Wiki Club.

Working day in the new Wiki Club in Staro Nagoričane, User:Gordi works with the students.

Opening speech in the Wiki Club in Staro Nagoričane.

ICOM award for Wiki Club

Two educators, employees in the Museum, receiving the award.

At the international day of the Museums, 18 May, the first Wiki Club in Macedonia received an award. It is a practice that on this day, once in a year, ICOM awards the best projects which are active in the Museums in Macedonia. This year, the first Wiki Club received this award.

On 27 January 2017, 7 students who participated in the last year edit-a-thon with the theme: Karpoš Municipality, were guests on the meeting with officials from the Karpoš Municipality, along with the President of UG GLAM Macedonia and the coordinator for education program at GLAM Macedonia. The officials said many thanks to our members who improved the article about the Municipality. The meeting was productive, because the officials agreed to help more about sources and texts, so in the future edit-a-thons we will be able to create, edit and improve other articles connected to Karpoš Municipality - about schools in this Municipality, about settlements, etc. At the end of the meeting, the officials offered us a room for Wiki Club members who live in this Municipality, where we could establish a division of the existing Wiki Club.

Wiki Club members on the meeting with officials at Karpoš Municipality.

Staro Nagoričane Municipality meeting

On 15 June 2017, 6 students, all members of the Wiki Club in Staro Nagoričane, were guests on the meeting with the officials and with the Mayor of the Municipality, Milovan Stojkovski, along with the Chair of UG GLAM Macedonia, the coordinator of the Wiki Club in Staro Nagoričane and the principal of the school were is held the Wiki Club. On the meeting, the Mayor gave a lightening talk about the Municipality cultural heritage. The students were introduced with the main features of the Municipality. At the end of the meeting, the Mayor gave to the students brochures with the texts and photos from the Municipality cultural heritage.

Members of the Wiki Club in Staro Nagoričane on the meeting with the Mayor, Milovan Stojkovski.

The Mayor gave a lightening talk about the Municipality cultural heritage.

The first Edit-a-thon in 2017, was held on March 7, 2017, on the topic: The Women You Have Never Met. As a result, 11 articles were created and 2 existing articles were expanded. All articles are about Macedonian revolutionary women. The texts about them were provided by two educators from the Museum, who are historians, and are in charge of Wiki Club activities.

The second edit-a-thon in 2017 was held on May 4, on the topic: The Balkan Wars. As a result, 5 articles were created and several existing articles were expanded. The texts were provided by two educators from the Museum, who are historians, and are in charge of Wiki Club activities.

The fifth edit-a-thon was held on September 13, 2017, with the members of two Wiki Clubs simultaneously, on the topic: Republic of Srpska. As a result, 13 articles were created and one article was expanded. This edit-a-thon was held as collaboration with the Wikimedians of Republic of Srpska.

The first Wiki conference for teachers was held on April 20, 2017, in Porta Makedonija in Skopje. There was a big interest for this conference. There were 65 participants, 4 speakers and 10 Wikipedians volunteers.

Wiki Camp Berovo 2017 was a successfully and professionally organized camp for underage students for editing articles on Macedonian Wikipedia. Overall, the camp was a huge success regarding the stated goals and expected outcomes. We had 69 participants, 55 students (6 from the local town), one lecturer, and others were involved teachers and GLAM Macedonia volunteers. The students were coming from 10 schools, all from different cities. As a direct result of the Camp, two new Wiki Clubs were started; 210 new articles were created. On the Wiki Camp, there were 29 already trained Wikipedians, who are members of Wiki Clubs in Macedonia, and 26 newbies. The sessions were split first two days: in one group there were the new users who were trained to edit Wikipedia and in the other group were Wikipedians who created articles and learn more skills while editing. The second day, there were two sessions: one workshop for photography, and the second workshop for advanced editing.

The idea for this activity comes from the historians, employees at the State Archives of the Republic of Macedonia. They have noticed that many existing articles on mk.wiki about Macedonian voivode have a wrong data or have no references. The aim of the project is to check data in articles on mk.wiki about Macedonian voivode and to create a new articles for people from the Macedonian history which do not exist on mk.wiki. The project started on 20 January 2017, after signing agreement for collaboration between the Archives and GLAM Macedonia. The Board members of GLAM Macedonia decided that we are going to fulfill this task.
The team who work on this project consists of several DARM employees and the following Wikipedians:

Also, the Board decided to send Violetova as a contact with DARM employees, who provide Wikipedians with books and materials about Macedonian voivode. MB and Rašo mk are providing a big help with checking existing articles, adding references, and creating new articles on the topic of this project.

We finished this project at the end of June 2017. We needed a period of six months, because Wikipedians who participated on this project are volunteers, using their free time to finish this task. At the end of the period, we managed to get funds in order to print 500 books with the title: Macedonian voivode, which serve as promotional material for Wikipedia to the public audience.

Results:

52 new articles are created

More than 200 existing articles on mk.wiki are expanded, checked, and references are added.